IMF | Capacity Development Office in Thailand

December 16 – 20: External Sector Statistics  

Renato Perez, CDOT External Sector Statistics Advisor, conducted a one-week technical assistance (TA) mission on External Sector Statistics in Lao P.D.R. The scope of the TA covered the assessment of Direct Investment (DI) statistics, International Investment Position (IIP), and selected Balance of Payments (BOP) components, including trade of goods and services. The mission also provided a comprehensive hands-on training on the main components of the BOP, IIP, and EDS, with participation from the Bank of Lao P.D.R., Lao Bureau of Statistics, and Ministry of Finance officials.

November 6 – 14: Monetary and FX Operations  

Giorgi Barbakadze, CDOT Monetary and FX Operations Advisor, conducted a one-week virtual technical assistance mission as part of continued engagement with the Bank of the Lao P.D.R. (BOL) to enhance its monetary operations framework and identify next steps to further improve BOL’s liquidity management, especially to respond to a structural liquidity deficit scenarios due to the ongoing Treasury Single Account (TSA) reform.

November 4 – 12: Forecasting and Policy Analysis Systems (FPAS)

			David Corvino, CDOT Advisor, and IMF team conducted the fourth in-person mission in the first phase of FPAS TA to the Bank of Lao PDR (BOL). The mission focused on macroeconomic diagnostics of exchange rate and monetary policy. It provided theoretical trainings and hands-on near-term forecasts of exchange rate, inflation, and money supply under various scenarios.

September 30 – October 8: Macroeconomic Frameworks

		David Corvino, CDOT Advisor, conducted the fourth mission of the Macroeconomic Frameworks Technical Assistance (TA) Project to support the Core Macroeconomic Group (CMG) of the Lao P.D.R. authorities from various economic agencies. The mission aimed to enhance CMG’s capabilities in analyzing and forecasting public debt by effectively utilizing the Debt-Dynamics Tool (DDT) and linking the Macroframework Foundations Tool (MFT) with the DDT templates to ensure consistency between both.

September 24 – October 3: Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations  

At the request of the Bank of Lao P.D.R. (BOL), Giorgi Barbakadze, CDOT Advisor, assisted BOL in enhancing its monetary operations framework by providing a draft survey to assess monetary policy transmission and aiding in the development of an inflation expectations survey. The BOL has made significant progress in implementing key recommendations from previous technical assistance (TA) missions. Additionally, the mission identified next steps to further improve the BOL’s liquidity management capacity. During the wrap-up meeting, the newly appointed Deputy Governor reaffirmed his support for the TA project and the follow-up capacity development (CD) activities by the Capacity Development Office (CDOT) in the upcoming quarter.

August 26 – 30: Government Finance Statistics and Public Sector Debt Statistics 

In consultation with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) of Lao P.D.R., Deon Tanzer, CDOT Advisor, conducted an in-country technical assistance (TA) mission on Government Finance Statistics (GFS) and Public Sector Debt Statistics (PSDS) in Vientiane from August 26–30, 2024. This mission worked with the Fiscal Policy Department (FPD), the Public Debt Management Department (PDMD), the Department of State-Owned Enterprises and Insurance (DSRI), the National Treasury Department (NTD), and the Financial Information Technology Department (FITD) to assist them in making further progress in GFS and PSDS compilation and dissemination. The mission also provided the FPD with on-the-job training to compile the Budget Execution Report (aligned with the GFSM 2014 framework) and quarterly GFS for budgetary central government and social security fund for 2023 and Q1 2024.

July 15 – 19: Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations

		At the request of the Bank of Lao PDR (BOL), Giorgi Barbakadze, CDOT Advisor, organized a peer-learning visit of BOL officials to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBKR) during July 15–19, 2024. Eight officials from the BOL’s Monetary and Policy Implementation (MPI) group—established specifically for the implementation of the CDOT CD program—participated in this visit and were led by the Director General of the Monetary Policy Department. The NBKR's experience in the modernization of monetary policy implementation has been highly valuable to the BOL, especially in addressing the challenges that the NBKR had faced during the transition period.

July 7 – 12: Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations

June 26 – July 5: Forecasting and Policy Analysis Systems (FPAS)

		Giorgi Barbakadze and David Corvino, CDOT Advisors, and the IMF Institute for Capacity Development (ICD) conducted an in-person technical assistance at the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) to support of the BOL’s monetary policy formulation. The mission delivered customized training on selected topics in monetary policy and macroeconomic forecasting, including monetary policy framework and transmission channels, empirical analysis on drivers of inflation including exchange rate pass-through, and inflation near-term forecasting (NTF). This mission also supported the BOL in refining the tool on analyzing drivers of inflation and improving the BOL’s existing inflation NTF tools.

May 7 – 16: Monetary and Foreign Exchange Operations

April 22 – 26: Macroeconomic Frameworks

January 15 – 23: Forecasting and Policy Analysis Systems (FPAS)

		David Corvino, CDOT Advisor, and the IMF Institute for Capacity Development (ICD) conducted an in-person technical assistance at the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) to support of the BOL’s monetary policy formulation. The mission provided a training on Macroeconomic Diagnostics (MDS) and diagnostic tools for macroeconomics aspects, including drivers of inflation, exchange rate pass-through, Phillips curve analysis, potential output, output gaps, and external sector’s sustainability which was followed by presentations to the BOL management and discussions with IMF country team.